Palestinians Re-Open The Orient House

BlogPal Carl inJerusalem at Israel Matzav has a disheartening story - the Palestinian Authority,in defiance of Israel has decided to unilatterally reopen the Orient House inIsraeli Sovereign territory in Jerusalem:

"In response to the murder of fifteen innocent civilians by a suicide bomber at Sbarro's Pizza in Jerusalem earlier that day, on August 9, 2001, Israeli security forces shut down Orient House , a building just over the 'green line' in 'east' Jerusalem that the 'Palestinians' had made into a quasi government headquarters in violation of the Oslo Accords they had signed with the Rabin government in 1993 and 1995. In August of this past year, 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen appointed former director of the Islamic Wakf Adnan Husseini as his 'adviser on Jerusalem affairs.'

The Wakf is the organization that controls anything the Muslims call a holy site, and that currently controls the Temple Mount; the organization is responsible for multiple, daily violations of Israel's Antiquities Law on the Temple Mount.

Husseini is also a cousin of the late Faisal Husseini, who held the position under Yasser Arafat. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post shortly after his appointment, Husseini placed a priority on reopening Orient House" {...}Today, the day after an Israeli government decision to close it for another year, the 'Palestinians' reopened Orient House

The late Faisal Husseini, by the way is a descendant of the infamous Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the PLO functionary who famously called the Oslo Process `a Trojan horse' used against Israel.

Actually, there's a lot more the Israeli government can do about this if they wanted to, just as there is a lot more they could do about getting the US embassy moved to Jerusalem...IF they wanted to.

The Orient House is on Israeli sovereign territory. There is absolutely no reason the Jerusalem police (or the IDF) could not move in, evict the miscreants and close it down again. It's intolerable that a hostile foreign entity would be allowed to establish a `headquarters' there

Then there would be no cause for foreign diplomats to go there.

The same with the embassy. Congress is on Israel's side on this one, Israel could send a covert message to President Bush that the status quo is unacceptable and that the Israeli government will boycott any meetings or affairs held there, will not accept the credentilas of US diplomats working out of there and not allow Israeli citizens to work there or enter the building until the situation changes would give Bush an opportunity to save face by actually keeping the campaign promise he ran on in 2000.

I have a feeling that faced with public embarrassment, he would do just that.

Of course, Olmert and Livni would actually have to have a spine to do this.

What is wrong with these people??